Journalist

One step at a time: Janine Holt with her five-year-old son, Joshua, and 20-month-old son, Lachlan, who is vision impaired and in training to use a guide dog in order to get around. Photo: Steven Siewert

As her blind, 20-month-old son Lachlan learns to navigate the world with a white cane, Janine Holt is running to raise money for those who gave him independence.

Ms Holt says she was ''useless'' at running when she committed to entering the The Sun-Herald City2Surf, presented by Westpac.

''I can't say I did it because I wanted to run the City2Surf,'' the Riverview resident said.

One of the Guide Dog puppies in Sydney. Photo: Janie Barrett

But now she enjoys the exercise and her improved fitness as she works towards repaying the generosity of Guide Dogs NSW/ACT.

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Lachlan was four months old when he was diagnosed with Leber's congenital amaurosis, an inherited eye condition that affects about one in 80,000 people and has no cure.

"We were just devastated,'' Ms Holt said. ''You don't know how you're going to get through."

But free services from Guide Dogs have shown Lachlan how to move around his house via ''mini-routes'' - for instance, from the couch to the toy box.

Now raised stickers on the doors mark different rooms - a dolphin for the bathroom, diamonds for the laundry, traffic lights for his bedroom. Mobility instructors have also taught Lachlan how to use his cane in the park, how to strike the slippery slide and then the swings, remembering their different sounds.

''They've made a big difference,'' Ms Holt says. "He's more confident. Now he loves the cane.

''When you say to him 'do you want to get the cane?', he starts jumping and makes a giggly sound.''

Guide Dogs is hoping City2Surf runners can raise $30,000, the cost of transforming a puppy into a guide dog over two years - including 21 weeks of intensive training - with the aim to name a puppy Surf, in memory of the team's fund-raising effort, if they reach that target.

Leila Davis, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT's fund-raising manager, said there were about 45 people currently on the waiting list for a guide dog.

"The growing demand for our services that enable people with vision loss to be independent is only going to keep on growing,'' Ms Davis said.

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